Cho, I. S., Križnik, B., & Hou, J. (Eds.). (2022). Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei beyond Developmental Urbanization. Amsterdam University Press.
Department: Landscape Architecture
Rachel Berney and Jeff Hou contribute to new book on social justice in urban design
“Just Urban Design: The Struggle for a Public City” (MIT Press 2022) features a collection of chapters and case studies that apply a social justice lens to the design of urban environments. Sixteen contributors, including Rachel Berney of Urban Design & Planning and Jeff Hou of Landscape Architecture, examine topics ranging from single-family zoning and community capacity building to immigrant street vendors and the right to walk. The book is open-access and can be downloaded from MIT Press here.
Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon
De Almeida, Catherine. (2019). Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon. Journal of Landscape Architecture, 13(3), 64-77.
Abstract
Materials and landscapes associated with waste are perceived as objectionable. By reactivating and embracing waste conditions as desirable opportunities for diverse programmes rooted in economy, ecology, and culture, designers can form hybrid assemblages on waste sites through the exchange of waste materials—a landscape lifecycles approach. This frame-work is applicable to not only design research, but also as a critical lens for evaluating the landscape performance of existing projects that engage with waste reuse. The Blue Lagoon in southwest Iceland materialized as a spa industry out of geothermal waste effluent from the adjacent Svartsengi Geothermal Power Station, reusing undesirable materials and transforming a waste landscape through diversified material recovery strategies. Featuring an industrial by-product turned economic generator, this case study reveals the opportunities for reusing geothermal ‘waste’ in these emergent landscape conditions, which hybridize economies with recreation, research, and ecology, and shift the conventional relationship with waste from passive to performative.
Keywords
Waste reuse; Blue Lagoon; material lifecycles; Iceland; landscape reclamation
Richard Haag: New Eyes for Old
Way, Thaisa. (2012). Richard Haag: New Eyes for Old. Sitelines: A Journal Of Place, 7(2), 6 – 8.
Versailles’s Very Own
Way, Thaisa. (2014). Versailles’s Very Own. Landscape Architecture, 104(1), 142 – 147.
Evaluation Strategies on the Thermal Environmental Effectiveness of Street Canyon Clusters: A Case Study of Harbin, China
Li, Guanghao; Cheng, Qingqing; Zhan, Changhong; Yocom, Ken P. (2022). Evaluation Strategies on the Thermal Environmental Effectiveness of Street Canyon Clusters: A Case Study of Harbin, China. Sustainability, 14(20).
Abstract
Urban overheating significantly affects people's physical and mental health. The addition of street trees is an essential, economical, and effective means by which to mitigate urban heat and optimize the overall thermal environment. Focusing on typical street canyon clusters in Harbin, China, landscape morphology was quantified by streetscape interface measurements (sky view factor, tree view factor, and building view factor). Through ENVI-met simulations, the correlation mechanism between streetscape interface measurements and thermal environment was evaluated, and optimization methods for assessing the thermal environment of urban streets were proposed. The results revealed: (1) The thermal environment optimization efficiency of general street canyon types was greatest when street tree spacing was 12 m. At present, the smaller spacing has not been simulated and may yield better thermal environment results. The average decrease in temperature (Ta), relative humidity (RH) and mean radiant temperature (MRT) was 0.78%, 2.23%, and 30.20%, respectively. (2) Specific street canyon types should adopt precise control strategies of streetscape interface according to their types to achieve the optimal balance between thermal environment optimization and cost. (3) Streetscape interface measurements and thermal environment indexes show quadratic correlation characteristics, and are critical points for further investigation. The conclusions are more specific than previous research findings, which are of great significance for decreasing the urban heat island effect at the block scale, improving residents' physical and mental health, and improving the urban environment quality.
Keywords
Heat Mitigation Strategies; Urban Green Areas; Sky View Factor; Cold Region; Comfort; Tree; Landscape; Park; Simulation; Density; Street Canyon Clusters; Streetscape Interface Measurement; Envi-met Simulation; Thermal Optimization
Celina Balderas Guzmán
Celina Balderas Guzmán, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. Dr. Balderas’ research spans environmental planning, design, and science and focuses on climate adaptation to sea level rise on the coast and urban stormwater inland. On the coast, her work demonstrates specific ways that the climate adaptation actions of humans and adaptation of ecosystems are interdependent. Her work explores how these interdependencies can be maladaptive by shifting vulnerabilities to other humans or non-humans, or synergistic. Using ecological modeling, she has explored these interdependencies focusing on coastal wetlands as nature-based solutions. Her work informs cross-sectoral adaptation planning at a regional scale.
Inland, Dr. Balderas studies urban stormwater through a social-ecological lens. Using data science and case studies, her work investigates the relationship between stormwater pollution and the social, urban form, and land cover characteristics of watersheds. In past research, she developed new typologies of stormwater wetlands based on lab testing in collaboration with environmental engineers. The designs closely integrated hydraulic performance, ecological potential, and recreational opportunities into one form.
Her research has been funded by major institutions such as the National Science Foundation, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, UC Berkeley, and the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab. She has a PhD in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she obtained masters degrees in urban planning and urban design, as well as an undergraduate degree in architecture all from MIT.
College of Built Environments’ Research Restart Fund Awards Four Grants in First of Two Cycles
The College of Built Environments launched a funding opportunity for those whose research has been affected by the ongoing pandemic. The Research Restart Fund, with awards up to $5,000, has awarded 4 grants in its first of two cycles. A grant was awarded to Real Estate faculty member Arthur Acolin, who is partnering with the City of Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development to understand barriers that homeowners, particularly those with lower incomes, face to building Accessory Dwelling Units…
uilding Watershed Narratives: An Approach for Broadening the Scope of Success in Urban Stream Restoration
Yocom, Ken. (2014). Building Watershed Narratives: An Approach for Broadening the Scope of Success in Urban Stream Restoration. Landscape Research, 39(6), 698 – 714.
Abstract
The success of urban stream restoration is often measured through biophysical attributes, or the progress towards restoration of a notionally intact section of landscape. What remains understudied is how success can be defined across social, economic, as well as ecological parameters. This research offers a narrative approach for urban restoration research that serves as a chronotope for untangling the biophysical and sociocultural complexities of the contemporary urban environment. The framework of this approach is presented through a case study of a recent stream restoration project in Seattle, Washington. The findings highlight the need for urban stream restoration processes to be grounded within a sociocultural context that is interdependent with biophysical conditions, and recommends measures of project success to include community, educational and participatory goals.
Keywords
River Restoration; Landscape; Management; Catchment; Systems; History; People; Restoration; Success; Watershed; Narrative; Urban
Transitions In Urban Waterfronts: Imagining, Contesting, And Sustaining The Aquatic/terrestrial Interface
Taufen, Anne; Yocom, Ken. (2021). Transitions In Urban Waterfronts: Imagining, Contesting, And Sustaining The Aquatic/terrestrial Interface. Sustainability, 13(1).
Abstract
Urban waterfronts represent hybrid locations of ecological, economic, and social zones of transition and dispersal, spatially reified between land and water. Yet, through advancements in technology and the emergence of globally linked economies, the structure and function of urban waterfronts as economic and industrial drivers is becoming increasingly complex. As cities seek to redevelop their waterfronts in response to these changes, recent research and scholarship has focused on understanding the ecological, social, and economic benefits derived from urban waterfronts. This research reveals that their benefits are unevenly distributed among local and regional populations as sites of accumulated inequity and inaccessibility that are generative for only a relatively small percentage of the people living in a metropolitan area. Set within this paradoxical nexus, this paper frames a call to scientists, planners, academics, and waterfront activists to expand urban waterfront research from an indicator and benefits model to incorporate three conceptual tools for better understanding key dimensions of waterfront reclamation within the context of green infrastructure research: urban hybridity, functional performance and hierarchies of access. We explore these key dimensions in relation to the waterfront redevelopment of Tacoma, Washington, USA. By acknowledging the hybridity of urban waterfronts, we illustrate that their relative performance and accessibility require ongoing empirical study and practical intervention. Our theoretical explorations plot some of the potential areas of investigation for examining the structural and functional transitions of urban waterfronts as critical locations for green infrastructure development for the 21st century.
Keywords
Place Attachment; Community Participation; Cities; Justice; Indicators; Challenges; Resilience; Governance; Space; Urban Waterfronts; Complexity; Urban Hybridity; Functional Performance; Hierarchies Of Access; Public Access; Stormwater Management; Infrastructure; Reclamation; Green Aspects; Waterfront Development; Urban Areas; Terrestrial Environments; Waterfronts; Economics; Hierarchies; Redevelopment; Regulation; Dispersal; Economic Activity; Shorelines; Regions; Terrestrial Ecosystems; Sustainable Development; Structure-function Relationships; Ports; Rivers; Metropolitan Areas; Urbanization; United States--us